From the moment George Washington took the oath of office until Obama did, America had borrowed $9 trillion. Under Obama, it has borrowed $3.2 trillion more, in less than two years.

To me, it is extremely important to remember that it actually started before the Amateur became president, and it isn’t only the Democratic party who is  responsible.

I’m all for a November fire sale:  everything must go!

If you make less than 70% on it you have to leave the country.  *stare*

Pictures upon our return.

UPDATE: Traffic from Titusville to Cocoa Beach is unpossible after a launch. But…totally worth it. (click for larger)

Our Mad Rocket Scientist has posted here before on Urban Gardening, for those of you who haven’t seen it there’s tons of good information in there on getting started no matter how small a space you might have.

We here at Casa de Ligne have a smallish 1/4 acre, taken up mostly by house and pool, but we’re thoroughly exploiting the space we do have for maximum yield. In the area between the bbq patio and the house, we have four 2×6 foot planter boxes, filled with a delightful mixture of compost, good topsoil, and peat moss. And we’re growing things sized appropriately to that space: sugar baby watermelons, orchard baby corn (five feet tall at full growth), beans (which will use the cornstalks as a trellis), many different peppers, zucchini, four kinds of cucumbers, seven varieties of tomatoes (most of these are actually in large pots), radishes, and a stupid number of specialty melons, both climbing up trellises and pretending to be just low-growing greenery with pretty flowers around the landscaping out front.

So, while our growing efforts aren’t strictly necessary from an economic standpoint, they are highly enjoyable, much less expensive/more tasty than shopping at the grocery store, and pleasing to pay homage to those who sacrificed so much during WWII, both abroad and at home.

If anyone would like a Victory Garden seed sampler, just leave a comment and I will be delighted to provide. The sampler will include at minimum:

1. Beans
2. Cucumbers
3. Tomatoes
4. Melons
5. Corn
6. Peppers (hot and sweet)

And if you have questions about care/feeding of any of the above, sing out, as well. Knowledge is power!

This is a Patriot’s Journey post. Remember to check out the other Patriotic Journeyers: Drumwaster, The Bastage, Inessential Musings, and The Edge of Reason

Most ten year old boys are playing baseball, video games or just hanging out with friends, but, not Moshe. He’s cramming for final college exams.

…

Within a year, if he keeps up his grades and completes the rest of his requirements, he hopes to transfer from his two-year program at East Los Angeles College to a prestigious four-year school and study astrophysics.

One of his primary interests is “wormholes,” a hypothetical scientific phenomenon connected to Albert Einstein’s theory of relativity. It has been theorized that if such holes do exist in space, they could – in tandem with black holes – allow for the kind of space-age time travel seen in science fiction.

“Just like black holes, they suck in particulate objects, and also like black holes, they also travel at escape velocity, which is, the speed to get out of there is faster than the speed of light,” Cavalin says. “I’d like to prove that wormholes are really there and prove all the theories are correct.”

This kid is our Daniel Shipstone.

But Hazel, you ask, what can you do? Well, Google, the entity who owns Blogger, provides a “how to make a DMCA complaint” page for our use. But do read the fine print:

Please note that a copy of each legal notice we receive is sent to a third-party partner for publication and annotation. As such, your letter (with your personal information removed) will be forwarded to Chilling Effects (http://www.chillingeffects.org) for publication. You can see an example of such a publication at http://www.chillingeffects.org/dmca512/notice.cgi?NoticeID=861. A link to your published letter will be displayed in Google’s search results in place of the removed content.

Do you get any say in the publication of your private correspondence with Google? Nope. If you send in the DMCA notice, they’re going to publish it. And saying you don’t want them to do so means exactly nothing.

Congratulations, Google. That’s quite the innovative way to cut down on the amount of paperwork with which your legal department has to deal. Because I am damned sure not sending in a complaint under these ludicrous circumstances. The plagiarist in question probably gets all of four visitors per day, and those are all him, desperately hoping someone has finally noticed his little site. I, personally, am content to allow him to remain in freakish obscurity…

Since I can’t, you know, challenge him to a duel.

UPDATE: Well, freakboy has decided to out himself by whinging on this very blog, so it might be a good idea for you fellow blogging folks to check and see how much of YOUR work they have likewise lifted from your sites. Not only is he sufficiently stupid as to copy/paste Robb’s entire post, but he was idiotic enough to allow a pingback, which is what tipped us off in the first place. He clearly doesn’t quite grasp this whole blogging thing, maybe we should take up a donation to buy him a ball. He can’t hurt himself with a ball, right?

Googlebomb: Plagiarist, plagiarism, plagiarizing. Plagiarist, plagiarism, plagiarizing. Plagiarist, plagiarism, plagiarizing. Plagiarist, plagiarism, plagiarizing.

You know, the way sharks find surfers appealing.

Anyway, this started me thinking hard about military service. It was a family tradition, going way back, the most recent being my Green Beret father, 101st Airborne, etc. etc. I finally decided Officer Country was vastly more appealing than gruntwork, and applied to my Congressman and the Naval Academy.

I wanted to be a pilot.

“Oh, but women can’t fly in combat.” I forget who told me that. No flying in combat? Then what, in the name of little green apples, was the bloody point? (I was young, I wanted to shoot things for my country.) Not only could women not fly in combat, but they couldn’t serve in combat period, in any branch, in any capacity. This was the late 80s, by the way.

Sod that for a bunch of bananas, I decided, and went off to college.

And, wouldn’t you know, women started flying in combat a few years later. And now they serve in many different capacities, though still relatively coddled.

PFC Monica Brown, all of 18 years old, showed exactly how much coddling she required in Afghanistan:

Four of those injured crawled or were thrown from the Humvee, while a fifth, Spec. Larry Spray, was caught inside by his boot and was on fire. Sgt. Zachary Tellier managed to pull him out.

Brown and a colleague then grabbed Spec. Stanson Smith, who was in shock and blinded by blood from his lacerated forehead, and dragged him by his body armor into a ditch about 15 yards away. Tellier helped Spray limp over.

No sooner were they in the ditch that insurgents began firing mortars. Brown threw her body over Smith, shielding him as more than a dozen rounds hit nearby. The ammunition inside the burning Humvee then started exploding, including 60mm mortars, 40mm grenade rounds and rifle ammunition. Again, Brown lay over the wounded.

And for that she received a Silver Star and orders to withdraw from the front lines:

“We weren’t supposed to take her out” on missions “but we had to because there was no other medic,” said Lt. Martin Robbins, a platoon leader with Charlie Troop, 4th Squadron, 73rd Cavalry Regiment, whose men Brown saved.

Seems the little lady did just fine. But the resistance to women in combat continues:

President Bush has forcefully backed the Army’s restrictions, asserting in a January 2005 interview with the Washington Times that there should be “no women in combat.” Since her heroic actions, however, Brown was promoted to specialist and has been congratulated by Cheney in Afghanistan, praised in a meeting with Bush at a NATO summit in Romania, and offered a job on the White House staff.

Military officers in the field and independent experts have said it is both infeasible and contrary to the Army’s own warfighting doctrine to prevent women from serving in proximity to — or together with — all-male combat units in today’s war zones. They contend that if the goal of the policy is to protect women from capture or bodily harm, it cannot be done in the scramble of conflicts such as those in the Middle East.

Listen, we, as the ladees, certainly appreciate the male instinct to keep us safe. And do not kid yourselves, fellas, it is ALL instinct. But take a look around you…the human race is doing quite well, number-wise anyway, and that “protect the egg-source!” can be ratched down from eleven. If the fear is one of capture and rape, then we certainly possess the psychological skills to prepare female soldiers for that eventuality. But it seems more to me the issue is rooted in WWI sensibilities of, “our girlies are who we’re fighting for, lads, having them shot up next to us on the battlefield would reduce us to piles of quivering blancmange!”

Our military is the single most astonishingly efficient and technologically advanced fighting force on the planet. It’d be nice if the bureaucracy would catch up.

This means exactly what it says. No further explanation required. Despite what the Supremes say about McCain-Feingold.

A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.

This means exactly what it says. What it should in practical terms mean is that if a firearm of any type can be conceived and manufactured by the minds and hands of mankind, I can have one and keep it with me.

No Soldier shall, in time of peace be quartered in any house, without the consent of the Owner, nor in time of war, but in a manner to be prescribed by law.

That means exactly what it says. Because King George III had a habit of forcing his subjects to feed and house their oppressors, essentially making a home into a prison for the owners or unlawfully removing a person of his property.

The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.

This means exactly what it says. Despite what the police in D.C. and Boston say.

No person shall be held to answer for a capital, or otherwise infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a Grand Jury, except in cases arising in the land or naval forces, or in the Militia, when in actual service in time of War or public danger; nor shall any person be subject for the same offense to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb; nor shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself, nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use without just compensation.

That means exactly what it says. Kelo ring any bells?

In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the State and district where in the crime shall have been committed, which district shall have been previously ascertained by law, and to be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation; to be confronted with the witnesses against him; to have compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favor, and to have the Assistance of Counsel for his defence.

That means exactly what it says. But the “Patriot Act” is our federal government’s best shot at killing it, isn’t it.

In Suits at common law, where the value in controversy shall exceed twenty dollars, the right of trial by jury shall be preserved, and no fact tried by a jury, shall be otherwise re-examined in any Court of the United States, than according to the rules of the common law.

This means exactly what it says.

Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted.

This means exactly what it says.

The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people.

This means exactly what it says.

The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.

This means exactly what it says.

These RIGHTS are not the government’s to give, they are OURS to keep. I took an oath to defend to Constitution from ALL enemies, foreign and domestic. How exactly am I supposed to honor that oath, an oath that I took TWICE and have never been released from despite being honorably discharged, when my government seems intent on flaying the Constitution and sucking out the marrow from its bones? How am I to seek redress of grievances when my senators or congressmen won’t even answer my letters, accept my phone calls, read my emails, sign for my telegrams, or even allow me an appointment in their home district at their home office? How am I to force the men and women whom I voted to elect to actually do the jobs they are being paid to do?

We flood them.

Flood them with phone calls and emails and letters. Show up at their offices in D.C. and in their home offices. Go where they go and let our voices be heard.

Sounds good, but it won’t happen.

We are a nation of people who would rather watch ‘American Idol’ than even think about how badly our own government is stripping our country of it’s very soul. We are a nation where people are afraid of being put on a watchlist somewhere, where our credit cards more important to us than actual credit rating, and where we allow the schools and the soccer coaches to raise our kids. We don’t join the PTA because ‘that bitch is on a power trip.’ We don’t go to city council meetings because ‘you can’t fight city hall.’ And we don’t write our congressmen and senators unless Rush Freaking Limbaugh, Hannity, and Beck tell us to. We’re not really what you might call ‘joiners’ to fight the tide, but are all too ready to ride the wave and cuss about it when it dashes us against the rocks.

We are a nation that allows our hirelings to spend our futures. We are a nation that allows vital defense contracts to be filled by foreign companies, steel for the Freedom Tower to be produced by Luxembourg, and the microchips that are the backbone of our electronic society to be produced in China right along with the toys our kids play with the medicine our aged need to survive.

We allow porous borders to stay porous, because no one wants to pay five dollars for a head of lettuce, but have occasional show busts to prove that ‘we are really cracking down.’ Meanwhile the rolls of welfare recipients swell and emergency rooms close down.

We allow the very term ‘special interest group’ in polite society when it should be a black stain of shame. ‘Politically correct’ should have been left behind with the fall of the Communists.

We allow our hirelings to accept money from our enemies for travel to their countries, then act surprised when they speak our against our own.

The Bill of Rights is there to protect you. And me. And our kids. And our very way of life.

Have you ever noticed that every Amendment to the Constitution does one of two things (with the exception of the 16th): codifies exactly what the government is NOT allowed to do or improves the way our government functions. (The 18th doesn’t count because it was superseded by the 21st; another proof that some things just DO NOT belong in the hands of the federal government.)

Keep the 21st in mind for a minute. It shows that even though something might sound like a good idea, it might not be a good idea for the Fed to have a hand in it. Our hirelings in D.C. have no damn reason at all to try to legislate into OUR CONSTITUTION a ban on gay marriage, flag burning, or anything else that limits the liberty of any of our 300 million plus citizens. It doesn’t matter if YOU agree with them expressing their liberty or not, our nation is one of LAWS. Or at least it used to be.

Our Bill of Rights is there to limit our hirelings.

And I see that it may be time for more limits.

Limit one: If you decide to run for office, your life is an open book. You don’t get to hide your books, your preacher, your master’s thesis, your crazy cat eating aunt, ANYTHING. If we want to know what you had for supper ten years ago while attending a Klan rally, you better be able to produce a freaking menu.

Limit two: If you currently hold office and want to run for another one, YOU HAVE TO RESIGN THE ONE YOU HAVE FIRST. Your constituents are paying you to do a job. If you want to try for another one, you have to let someone else have the one you already hold, thereby not depriving said constituents of your full and complete attention. Our Big Three in this current slimefest are all Senators. If they represented me, I would be demanding their resignations immediately. After hearing these jackasses every freaking day for the last year, I don’t trust them to do anything other than pander; and I certainly wouldn’t think that these senators are doing one tiny bit of work for the states they are supposed to be representing.

Limit three: You must be able to point to exactly where in the constitution, either US or State, it is written that any legislation you propose is allowed, authorized, or assumed. (If it is assumed, you better be able to make a damned good argument why it would be necessary, not just nice-to-have.) If you want to spend money, it better be money the budget actually has, without raising new taxes.

Limit four: You serve ‘at will’. If more than a third of the people you serve think you suck at your job, your career is over. Further, you may never hold public office in any capacity ever again. That one-third margin of suckitude will be measurable by a yes/no box on the 1040EZ form. For States with no income taxes, it will be a box on the Property Tax form.

Limit Five: You can only spend tax dollars if you can get three fourths of the chamber to agree by in-person roll call vote. The other chamber can turn it down with a mere one fourth vote, and those votes can be literally phoned in from the home office of the hireling. If you are the President and want to spend money, one third of either chamber can turn you down. Three such lack of confidence votes results in your immediate expulsion from office, never to serve the public again.

I have no illusions that what I propose will ever make it into the books, at least not until common sense comes back to government. I am so damned disgusted right now I can barely write, so I apologize if this seems incoherent. Feel free to take the parts you like and pass it on. Perhaps to our hirelings at every level of government. Or you can write in to tell me it’s not as bad as I think it is. I hope not anyway.

But, come on! These are still human beings we’re talking about. Oftentimes, humans do or say things without thinking through every nuance, and which may or may not be representative of their overall view of the subject at hand. Often because they’re in a casual environment, among “friends,” they let something slip, a naughty word or an unpopular opinion, because they weren’t thinking for a second, or they thought it would be funny. But, when they’re in politics, they accidentally touch a live wire and all hell breaks loose.

Take Geraldine Ferraro, for instance. She just resigned from Hillary’s campaign because she suggested that maybe Obama’s popularity had a little something to do with the color of skin rather than the content of his character. Which, okay, dumb thing to say out loud considering how sensitive everyone is about race relations in this country. However, it’s not like most of us haven’t thought the same thing at least once in the past year. Not seriously, perhaps. Not with enough conviction to make you willing to back your position in an argument on the subject. Maybe only to acknowledge it so you can disregard it. But the mere existence of the idea is unavoidable, precisely because he is black, and no black man has ever gotten so far in US presidential politics before. And because race is such a touchy subject here and now. If his race weren’t an issue, anything Geraldine Ferraro might say about it would not be an issue.

I’m not suggesting free passes for everyone. Gov. Spitzer did very dumb things that call his judgment into question, things that were in fact illegal. But the way the story is playing out, he’s not in trouble for showing this massive failure of judgment, or for breaking the law. He’s in trouble for cheating on his wife with hookers and being a hypocrite. He didn’t resign because he thought he was unqualified for his post. He resigned out of shame. If we’re going to hound a guy out of elected office, let’s at least do it for the right reasons.

I think that if it were possible for a politician or staffer to say or do something monumentally unwise, get laughed about for a day or two, and then get back to his job, we’d wind up with a better class of people trying to run this country, if only because they’d be able to relax and speak their minds in public for a change.

Anyway. What really torques me about whoring Governors and diddling Judges is this sense of entitlement they seem to have. That the laws they purport to advocate mean exactly nothing when applied to them. Hypocrisy is nothing new from our elected officials, yet here we go, tolerating it again. What exactly would have happened had Spitzer refused to resign? Would the Federal Bee Eye have kicked in the door of the Governor’s mansion one night and hauled him away in handcuffs, boxer shorts drooping, fat tears sliding down his oh-so-sincere face? As if. What happened to “all men are created equal”? Oh, except when they’re party favorites?

Once again…and slower…we here in the United States do not have LEADERS. We have REPRESENTATIVES. And they should be held to exactly the same standards, and face exactly the same consequences for breaking the law, as the rest of us.